1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of electronics thermal management, pertaining particularly to the management of printed circuit boards (PCBs) used in the telecom and other industries where such boards are mounted in close proximity to each other in a rack or housing, e.g., telecommunications system channel bank. The present invention pertains to methods and apparatus for creating and maintaining acceptable operating temperatures on said boards through use of a specialized heat sink attached to the board's integrated circuits (ICs).
2. Discussion of the State of the Art
In the field of electronics, PCBs are used to support mounted electronics components, including integrated circuits for use in powering and providing function to electronic devices and systems. In the field of telecommunications, a plurality of PCBs are often arranged as a group in parallel relationship to each other and in close proximity to each other, especially in telecommunications equipment like telecommunications channel banks.
In typical individual PCB structures, there are a variety of techniques and apparatus employed for the purpose of helping maintain acceptable temperatures for heat-generating ICs mounted to the board. Of these known types, individual passive heat sinks and thermally conductive board layers are the most common. These, however, have become increasingly less effective with the advent of higher speed ICs required on the PCBs of telecommunications and other industries. These faster ICs generate more heat, and, when enough are mounted together on a PCB, can generate enough heat to render individual passive sinks or conductive layers inadequate. The problem is exasperated further when multiple boards are operating in close proximity to one another.
More thermally effective types of heat dissipation systems are available in the art such as micro-fans, thermoelectric heat sinks, or heat-pipe assisted sinks. While thermally effective, there is a higher cost for implementing these types and there are more reliability problems with the use of these systems. Moreover, the housing arrangement typically required of a plurality of PCBs arranged in parallel and in close proximity to each other, such as in a telecommunications channel bank, for example, makes implementation of space-consuming control contrivances very difficult if not impossible. This is because systems like telecommunications channel banks have very limited space available between installed cards (PCBs) and may have no permissible space outside of channel banks to provide mounting space for heat rejection surfaces that may be used in heat pipe systems or the like.
Therefore, what is clearly needed in the art is a thermal heat sink and dissipation system for temperature control and maintenance of multiple ICs mounted to a PCB that may be implemented with other like PCBs in tight, minimally-spaced board configurations and that may be provided of low-cost materials and labor.